Short Synopsis: Casshern arrives at a robot graveyard.Highlights: Nico was awesome.Overall Enjoyment Value: 9/10 (Fantastic)
Oh my god. This was without a doubt the best episode of Casshern Sins yet, and with such a series, that really has to say something. I can’t believe how easy these writers make it seem to just create such wonderful stories, episode after episode. This episode not only evolved the storyline, but it also created one of the most awesome characters of the series: Nico.

There were lots of different characters with prominent roles in this episode, and it was much, much more than just another episode of Casshern the “chick magnet”. Nico was kind to everyone she ran into, not just Casshern. The most notable of this was of course the male robot (there really needs to be some sort of general term for them): finally one of them gets a bit of depth, and the results are wonderful. As a robot, he doesn’t feel pain like normal humans, so if he loses a bunch of limbs, all he can just do is sit at one place and wait for the destruction to kill him completely. He’s also the first of his kind to see that Dio was wrong, and have a change of heart.

Of course, I could write pages about how incredibly awesome this episode was, but you really need to see it for yourself. At this point, the creators have really established themselves as masterful storywriters, who really try to make the best out of each of their episodes and take nothing for granted. I’m really glad to have given this series a second chance after its lacklustre first episode and decided to blog this.

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and there are people out there who chose to watch meaningless fanservice shows rather than this…..seriously, this show has even overcome my fanboyism over Gundam 00 and thus makes me able to say Casshern sin is of a better show than Gundam 00

Haven’t seen it yet as the Casshern Sins page of zomganime has been down, but your comments kinda make me proud that I’ve been a fan of this series and even decided to start my own blog about it (albeit a mere few aspects of it). I now feel sorry for those jerks who completely trashed the show after watching just the first or the first two episodes. They don’t know what they’ve been missing, and should they even reconsider now or later, it could only be pathetic as hell.

I finally got to watching this episode. You know me; if there’s a Casshern-x-Lyuze element to the episode, I automatically like it and I’d say it’s awesome. But that wasn’t really the case with this episode.

There’s surely have been more development between the two characters here than any other episode (Casshern calls Lyuze by her name now, they talk and hang out like they’re friends or something, and they are now shown facing in the same direction), and I don’t know if it was just my bad mood at the time of watching, but there’s something about the progression of the scenes and story that’s rather “jerky”. It feels like everything’s going a bit too fast, and things are happening a little too abruptly.

I’ve actually been waiting for an episode “with flowers”. I’m thinking, Casshern would pick a flower or a bunch of ‘em (a blue rose perhaps?) and give them to Lyuze as a peace offering *slash* “token-of-affection”. Well, this episode has a lot of flowers in it, but I guess that is just too much to ask for. On the other hand, this episode shows that Lyuze is not indifferent towards flowers and I hope Casshern somehow picked that up. If he was able to just know Lyuze’s name without anyone telling him, there’s no reason for him not to.

Another thing I’ve noted in this episode is how the people behind it seemed to have highlighted the contrast between Casshern’s sensitivity and Lyuze’s roughness. I’m talking of course with the way they treated Nico. So basically, the the lead couple of this series (if I may call them that this early), is a sensitve, emo-but-not-a-pansy-by-all-means guy, and, a tomboy who-hasn’t-lost-touch-with-her-femininity. Exactly my kind of couple: a guy I can relate to, and a chick who’s just my type. Another reason for me to like this show.

I am aware of the original Casshern, but I haven’t watched it. I also saw that 90s Casshern and I don’t remember liking it. Do I have to? I mean, to enjoy this series, I have to have watched the original?

The problem with people like you is that you have trouble accepting more recent titles in a franchise as independent of the original and later predecessors. I think it has already been pointed out that the storyline of Casshern Sins has nothing to do with the original series. Even if no one did, it should be obvious for someone of your supposed experience and intellect.

It shows how you think you already know a lot, and how quick you are to pass judgment without a decent amount of basis. And yeah, keep your garbage to yourself.

Eheh don’t be mad at me, cause i was joking with your flowers back then :) Just make a big laugh and go on, k? ;)

The 90’s OAV was a very quick summary of the older serie. It wasn’t that bad, but lacked a lot of introspection. Anyway the basic plot was still there.

Let me introduce you the real Casshern and the contact points between old and new series.

Short summary. Dr Azuma build a new serie of AI with the purpouse of solving the greates issue of pollution. But the AI disfunctioned and become “alive”. The new generated Braiking interpreted the task Dr Azuma gave them by literally removing the main agent of world pollution, that is, ironically mankind. Braiking build an army of robots and declared war to humanity.
Dr Azuma, from savior of the world was addressed as the Fool Scientist that ruined the world.
Dr Azuma tried to find a solution and developed a new kind of cyborg to defeat Braiking’s army.
The new project is revolutionary: a biological mix of robot and living form, moved by solar energy. It combined the strenght of the robot and intellect of humans. But a sacrifice is necessary to operate it: someone must give out his humanity and become that monster.
The first experiment on a living creature was successful: Tetsuya’s pet Friender was turned into a multi task robot. It can change to an airplane and other kind of veicles at command. It also equipped a firethrower in the mouth.
But Braiking came aware of Dr Azuma’s plans and prepared to strike.
On a dreadful night, Braiking attacked the lab. Tetusya, Dr Azuma’s only child, decided to be the sacrifice for Casshern birth. Aware of loosing its own humanity he takes farewell from his family and his love, Luna and went inside the machine. Tetsuya’s body was disintegrated and fused with Casshern’s mechanical skeleton.
An horrible view awaits newborn Cashern the subsequent day: The lab is destroyed, his parents are missing. He gets friender and begins his quest. Some time later he also find Luna. That is another beautiful story, but i’ll leave that for now.

Given this prologue, there’s much more plot in the first serie than in the new one, right? But that’s not all… [continues]

Casshern now is neither a human nor a robot. He’s an halfbreed from both races at war. Nonetheless his appearence is still human and he pretends to be one. But he knows he’s not and fears to be rejectd from mankind in the first place. He fights robots but what to do if humanity that he loves so much, would turn against him knowing the truth?
Luckily enough nobody noticed the superhuman strenght and agility, and Casshern quickly becomes a new symbol of hope. He’s the new saviour people relies on. By now, cause Braiking will eventually find out the truth and would use that info against Casshern.
The only ally of Casshern is her: Luna. At the start of the story Casshern resused Luna. Being no more human he feel sorry not to be the man she loved anymore. But Luna still loved him and would never say farewell to him.
Casshern is aware that the robotic body is slowly taking over of himself and he’s loosing his mind. Whenever that will happen nobody knows what it will be of him. Cassher will turn in am emotionless fighting machine and Testya will eventually fade away.

This is the very connection to the new serie. Hundreds of centuries in the future, Casshern has (supposedly) ommitted the greatest sin, killed Luna and his own humanty is now lost. This new serie is a journey backway to humanity for Casshern.
[continues]

This is the very connection to the new serie. Hundreds of centuries in the future, Casshern has (supposedly) ommitted the greatest sin, killed Luna and his own humanty is now lost. This new serie is a journey backway to humanity for Casshern.

Where did you get this? I got the part that Luna was “summoned”… does this mean she time-travelled to the future or something?

This is what’s currently in the Wikipedia article:The series has been remade, completely discarding the continuity presented in the original Neo-Human Casshern anime series, in which Casshern was a cybernetic superhero battling the evil robotic forces of Braiking Boss in a post-apocalyptic Earth. Instead, in Casshern Sins, Casshern is presented as a cyborg subordinate of Braiking Boss who was ordered to assassinate the savior of mankind, and has thus doomed the Earth to ruin.

Of course, in no way am I saying that you’re wrong and whoever wrote that part of the article is right. I’m just sharing the information.

Honestly, I’m just in this for the “Lyuze” and the “Casshern-x-Lyuze” sides of it. I don’t really care about everything else. Some people probably have negative things to say about that, but so what? That’s what I like about this series.

Remember that wiki is written by people and can be wrong. Sure the director changed something, but the only difference with respect to the old serie looks Casshern being subordinate to Braiking. We don’t know what really happened in the fictional time line as there’s a huge gap between the old and the new story. I can tell you how it finished and you know how it restarted. Then you can do your calculations. Mine is a nice teory after all.

About Luna being there centuries later, sure you heard hints in the last episodes about Luna possibly being alive and immortal, didn’t you?

Btw, let me continue the essay from above.
So, themes such as pollution, racism, lost humanity, war and sacrifice were themes of the wise old Casshern. Now we have a very nice mood and atmosphere about a dead world and the few living and robotic beings that still live there. The manin theme here is just Casshern doing his journey in search of his lost humanity and love. Luna, the wonderful character lost from the first serie is now a symbol of hope and redemption. You see what a change in 30 yeasr of Casshern.
Casshern was once the main actor in the war between Humans and Robots. Now all the story centers around him.
But the old Casshern was a char eternally struggling in the fight for an higher mission, that was to take remedy of the mistakes of the past and to save the future.
Today Casshern has no aim, no mission. He just wanders off in search of something missing, but finds only the ruin of a lost forgotten world, and its insane inhabitants, old remaning of the robot who took the world over humans.

I think that the major theme in the new series is a bit more than just watching Casshern wander around. It’s also about how people and robots choose to live, knowing that they’re going to be destroyed anyway, which is one of the main reasons why I’m so interested in this series.

Also, at the end of this particular episode, Casshern most definitely gives himself a clear mission: if he was the one who caused the destruction, then he’s going to be the one to stop it.

About Luna being there centuries later, sure you heard hints in the last episodes about Luna possibly being alive and immortal, didn’t you?

Let me ask you this then; why is it that Luna (here in Casshern Sins) had to ask who the intruder is? If she knew Casshern from back then, that won’t be necessary, and she’d probably be a lot more emotional than that. And is the Luna in the original series also “immortal”?

But we could argue and question all we want. The best thing to do, in my opinion, is to just wait for the rest of the series to unfold.

But the old Casshern was a char eternally struggling in the fight for an higher mission, that was to take remedy of the mistakes of the past and to save the future.

That’s because the “old Casshern” was intended to be a superhero. This Casshern, while still saving people and fighting bad guys, obviously wasn’t. Even if he were, I’m still not seeing it.

Yet there were nine long episode worth of wandering for Casshern to decide to move on…

That’s why i said elsewere the serie is progressing far too slowly. The “short summary” i wrote down before is only one episode and it has more plot than nine episodes of the new serie!

I agree on slow part. If you’ve seen an older comment of mine, I said that 12-13 eps. is just right for this series. Then it became clear that this is gonna go up to the 24-26 range through the use of “fillers”. But I learned to just deal with it, sit back, and enjoy it.

Was the original series that “unresolved” for you to want this series to pick up where it left off or be an improved version of it?

Luna was human. Her weapon was a magnetic gun that destroyed robots but was harmless to humans. She was completely different in the old serie. That’s a real pity cause i liked very much that character of hers.

In this serie the two seem to be complete strangers. Well much time has passed in the timeline anything could have happened, such as memory loss. Most likely in the eventuality of Luna being turned into a cyborg too.

As a matter of fact, this is a new serie. It’s normal that there are differences and given the time gap, i demand for explanations that the serie didn’t yet provide me, being over 1/3 of the planned airtime.

What’s with my tentative of explanation that bother you so much CxL? I thought about it and tried to join the old with the new in the most logical way.
As a matter of fact the two series are very different, but the’t what we’d expect after 30 years gap between the two ;) Anime has changed and also the public has changed.
We an also skip on some discordances in the happenings for the sake of the new plot continuity.

Last note: Casshern is still a superhero. He just forgot it. With some luck the plot will start moving soon and we well have all the answers we derserve.

Super last note: I really hope for your sake that Luna will be dead or something unless there’ll never be place for Casshern X Lyuze, Sopithia, Nico or whatever else chick ;)

What’s with my tentative of explanation that bother you so much CxL? I thought about it and tried to join the old with the new in the most logical way.
As a matter of fact the two series are very different, but the’t what we’d expect after 30 years gap between the two ;) Anime has changed and also the public has changed.
We an also skip on some discordances in the happenings for the sake of the new plot continuity.

It’s not the same storyline.

Look, we could argue about this endlessly and that would just be a waste of time. So I say, let’s just keep watching the series and see if it turns out as you say (a continuation of the original), or not (a completely different storyline).

Last note: Casshern is still a superhero. He just forgot it. With some luck the plot will start moving soon and we well have all the answers we derserve.
The series hasn’t even reached half its intended number of episodes (I hope they don’t cancel it), so expect more “delays”.

If Casshern’s “still” a superhero in this series, I don’t recall a single line in the dialogue that supports the idea. What he forgot was everything prior to his reawakening, which of course revolves around the act of tracking down and killing Luna. And so far, I haven’t seen any indication of him being a superhero during that time or prior to it. In addition, if he was even considered a “good guy”, he could have simply walked up to Luna and not have to be confronted by Lyuze’s sister. And considering his superiority as a fighting machine, he could have even been the one charged of protecting Luna.

Super last note: I really hope for your sake that Luna will be dead or something unless there’ll never be place for Casshern X Lyuze, Sopithia, Nico or whatever else chick ;)

Take a hint from the opening, the list of seiyuu in the ending, and the list of characters in the official website. They obviously intended Lyuze to be the “hero’s girl” of the show. I don’t know why they decided not to put Luna in that role, and instead come up with a new character for it, but I like the end result.

And you don’t have to hope that. I know “Casshern-x-Lyuze” is gonna happen regardless of what state Luna is in. Believe it!

Eldar, do you watch anime on youtube and yet argue about quality?
Nontheless it’s quite obvious that a 30 years old anime looks “quite much outdated” in comparison to a modern one. But about the plot, please, don’t even bother telling its writing was worse cause it’s absolutely not true.

CxL let’s see what it will happen. Of course we’ll write our own final notes at last when the anime will be finished.

while i am pretty sure that this series has nothing to do with the original, there are always ways to somehow connect them if you want.

anyway, the writing is excellent in this series, even if 90% percent of the time it has nothing to do with the plot and more to do with the atmosphere. just because the plot is slow moving doesnt mean the writing is bad at all.
i mean the plot is simple enough, Casshern is told he caused the ruin by killing Luna and so he wants to find a way to somehow help the world or stop the ruin altogether. while we dont really have established villains (Dio being an antagonist and all but he also wants to end the ruin, and Braiking Boss just wandering around himself) the series as a whole has been wonderful so far and i cannot stop watching it.

so far, most of the deepness in the writing pertains to how they portray the robots trying to live in such a world that in effect they also helped create, and in that aspect, this show is VERY deep and moving.

on the casshern side, we dont really feel his pain because even though he has been told he caused all this, he still doesnt remember anything and just takes everyone’s word for it. when we start to delve into his side of things a little deeper, i suspect the writers will do just as fantastic a job as they have been doing so far.

while i am pretty sure that this series has nothing to do with the original, there are always ways to somehow connect them if you want.

Thank you.

on the casshern side, we dont really feel his pain because even though he has been told he caused all this, he still doesnt remember anything and just takes everyone’s word for it.

I don’t think it’s just “taking everyone’s word for it”. He saw for himself the kind of destruction he’s capable of (late episode 02 – early episode 03), albeit when not in control himself. And that seemed enough to convince him that the accusations he just one day woke up to are true. He doesn’t have any memory of his “sin”, but he acknowledges it as if he does.

man this episode made me tear up a bit at the end :'( Very powerful character. This episode reminds me a bit of Planetarian: Chiisana Hoshi no Yume (a little star’s dream). If you have not played that, YOU MUST!! It will make you really teary by the end (and its fully translated =))!! Very powerful. You could probably torrent it by a cursory search of google. Fairly short, about 2 or 3 hours if i remember correctly.

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Ebod

(Tuesday, Mar 3. 2015 08:22 PM)

V for Vendetta for me has always been a more “literary” work than Watchmen, but Watchmen is spectacular because it’s a story that can only be told in full scope in the comic format. While I feel like many major themes and events from V for Vendetta could easily be adapted into, say, novel format, the same could not be said of Watchmen.
Also, the racist whitewashing Hollywood does of Asian characters really has to stop.

Bam

(Tuesday, Mar 3. 2015 06:30 AM)

Watchmen was deemed ‘unadaptable’ for about thirty years, so just getting what Snyder got out of the material is a huge success; it is said that what he did was to write a book version of Ingmar’s Holy Mountain. Watchmen is the only graphic novel to ever win a Hugo award and is easily the most intricate and multilayered Alan Moore comic, so it’s no surprise that it continues to top ‘best comics of all time’ charts to this day.

Bam

(Tuesday, Mar 3. 2015 06:20 AM)

I beg to differ. Doctor Manhatten is the most intriguing character of Watchmen and the comic is a giant in ,not only in the comic world, but the history of literature itself. It is a deconstruction of superheros and Dr. M shows how afraid the world would really be when faced with a ‘superman’ and how a creature in such a higher realm of time and perception would show apathy toward humans and their foolish struggles.

Bam

(Tuesday, Mar 3. 2015 06:15 AM)

GitS just won’t work. Maybe in a world before the Matrix, but not now with so many elements of it borrowed liberally by so many franchises in various mediums. Scarlet Johansson is decent in roles that fit her. She was enjoyable in Lost In Translation, but race aside she has nothing in common with Kusanagi. This is a travesty and the franchise is dear to me so it especially burns my ass.

Emma

(Tuesday, Mar 3. 2015 06:10 AM)

While I am no fan of man of steel, Nolan and Snyder, just about anyone would have a hard time taking a difficult character like superman and making him work on screen.

Emma

(Tuesday, Mar 3. 2015 06:08 AM)

Apart from Veidt and Rorshach I could never get into the characters all that much in watchmen. I also found the film overly long and mediocre acted for the larger part. But to each there own. For Alan moores works I always preferred his Miracleman, swamp thing, V for Vendetta stories.

Bam

(Tuesday, Mar 3. 2015 06:06 AM)

Nolan can produce the action plus personal and dark story that Alita would need, and he also brings talent such as composer Hans Zimmer and Cinematographer Sally Pfister to the table. Him and Snyder have too much combined integrity to make a mockery out of Alita like Spielberg did with the GitS license.

Bam

(Tuesday, Mar 3. 2015 06:03 AM)

Well Snyder has respect for his source materials and that is key in anime-to-film adaptations. Hell I’m a big Watchmen fan and I thought his version was (almost painfully) close to the comic. You’re not going to get that anywhere else in Hollywood. Also the combination of Nolan/Snyder is quite different than them individually.

Emma

(Tuesday, Mar 3. 2015 05:34 AM)

And directed it as a co-production with America, using a Japanese cast.
Yeah…this is impossible…

Emma

(Tuesday, Mar 3. 2015 05:32 AM)

The only way a live action ghost in the shell film would work is if Mamoru oshii directed it.

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